The CFPB is Correcting Flaws to Restore Integrity and Utility to the Consumer Complaint System

Key dates

2026-06-24

CFPB published the announcement describing the consumer complaint portal reforms.

Suggested considerations

• Compliance teams may wish to obtain and operationalize the revised CFPB Company Portal Manual, mapping each substantive and administrative response category to documented decision criteria and approval controls.
• Nationwide consumer reporting agencies and other portal participants should consider testing whether complaint response coding is applied consistently across business units, products, and servicing locations, particularly for non-monetary relief and administrative returns.
• Firms should consider retaining evidence of the identity, authority, and relationship of any third party submitting or assisting with a complaint, while ensuring those controls do not improperly prevent authorized representatives from obtaining assistance.
• CRAs should consider enhancing intake and case-management fields to identify the consumer's prior direct FCRA dispute, the relevant dispute date, information disputed, investigation outcome, and supporting documentation.
• Compliance teams may wish to distinguish CFPB portal handling from the underlying duties in FCRA sections 611 and 623, including the reasonable-investigation and reinvestigation obligations that may arise after a consumer dispute is properly received.
• Companies should consider monitoring portal communications and API-related implementation materials for additional CFPB specifications concerning address validation, data exchange, administrative response categories, and apparent abuse.
• Complaint-management governance should consider the CFPB's 30-calendar-day operational backlog definition for internal escalation and management information, while avoiding the assumption that the definition changes a statutory response deadline.
• Credit repair and consumer-assistance businesses should review whether their complaint-submission practices accurately identify third-party involvement and avoid automated, duplicative, or unsupported disputes that could be treated as process abuse.

What changed

The CFPB issued a revised Company Portal Manual clarifying the use of substantive and administrative closure categories, including the category "Closed with non-monetary relief," to improve consistency across companies and CRAs. The portal now requires users creating online accounts to verify both an email address and mobile phone number through two-factor authentication, adds relationship categories and clarifying text requiring third parties to disclose their involvement, and is expected to add address validation at complaint submission. The CFPB added notice language stating that consumers should first exercise their dispute rights directly with consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act before submitting a CFPB complaint. It is exploring an administrative response

Who is affected

• Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion as nationwide consumer reporting agencies
• Other companies receiving and responding to complaints through the CFPB Company Portal
• Credit repair organizations and credit clinics submitting complaints or acting for consumers
• Third-party representatives, including authorized agents, spouses, adult children, and servicemember representatives
• Consumers disputing inaccurate or incomplete information in consumer reports

Related regulations

• Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681i and 1681s-2
• FCRA Section 611, consumer dispute and reinvestigation procedures
• FCRA Section 623(b), duties of furnishers after notice of dispute from a consumer reporting agency
• Consumer Financial Protection Act, 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531 and 5536